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by Danielle Smyth (Author)
From the bestselling author of Ghost Writing-winner of the 2025 North American Book Awards Gold Medal in Romance and a 2025 Shelf Media Top Notable Indie Book-comes By the Book, the story of Scarlett Sinclair, Callie's devoted best friend. Set alongside the events of Ghost Writing, this novel steps behind the scenes to reveal Scarlett's own sweeping, complicated love story-proving that while Callie fought for her happily ever after, Scarlett risked everything for hers.
Scarlett Sinclair is a romance novelist who knows exactly how love is supposed to work-on the page, at least. Off the page, she's stuck. Her latest manuscript isn't landing, her editor wants more of the same, and she's quietly suffocating inside a life that no longer fits.
She meets Jonathan Levine at a literary reading for a book that isn't hers, and the connection is instant. Jonathan is steady, successful, and principled-and, catastrophically, a corporate attorney for Scarlett's publishing house. He believes in rules and careful boundaries, even as he falls for a woman who runs on instinct and emotion.
As their relationship intensifies, Scarlett wrestles with whether to deliver the book she's contracted to write or risk walking away. Further complicating matters, her mother reveals a long-buried family secret-one that upends everything Scarlett thought she understood about her parents, her beloved Aunt Tess, and, especially, about herself.
Now, Scarlett must discover who she truly is, mend her family ties, and fight for a future with Jonathan. Following her heart could mean breaching her contract and risking both her career and the man she loves. Staying the course may cost her something even greater: the chance to live-and love-authentically.
